The Bear Facts
December 17, 2016

Good morning! I’m Lexi Berte!

I’m Megan Wadle!

And I’m Caitlin Thilges! You’re listening once again to the “Bear Facts”, the radio show where each week we keep you up to date on all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Today is the first big competition of the season for the Golden Bear math team, with a home tournament. For more than a decade Garrigan has competed in the Great Plains Math League, pitting our mathematical skills against students from around Iowa. At the core of this year’s math team are seniors Logan Capesius, Ben Fogarty, Andrew Thilges, Danielle Plathe, and Josh Hamilton. Others competing today include juniors Ben Degen and Caitlin Thilges, sophomores John Meis and Gabe Trainer, and freshmen Aubree Altman and Emma Fogarty.

So what do people do on math team? Well, basically they take tests, but there’s a wide variety of them. The sprint and target rounds are done individually, students work together in the team round, and one person’s answer leads into the next answer in the relay round. Some of the tests allow calculators, while others require calculations to be done by hand. Some of the questions are multiple choice, and others use a short answer format. Good luck today to Coach David Burrow and the math team!


Rehearsals are starting for the Golden Bear speech team. Large group contest is coming up in January, and Coaches Jake Rosenmeyer and David Burrow have been busy selecting and casting this year’s events. The largest group this year is in Readers Theatre, where we’ll be presenting “The Brothers Grimm: Out of Order”. Cast members include Sam Trainer, Gigi Byrkeland, Ashlyn Harrington, Gabe Trainer, Sam Vaske, Bryce Capesius, and Laurel Degen; as well as Lauren Kenyon, Caroline Bradley, Sam Harrington, Jordan Hansen, John Zeimet, Megan Besch, Logan Heying, and Tommy Kollasch.

In Choral Reading the speech team is preparing a presentation of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. It will feature Alisa Altman, Kat Willie, Gigi Byrkeland, John Zeimet, Megan Wadle, Johanna Becker, and Jenna Boelter; plus John Meis, Madison Illg, Bryce Caprsius, Layah DeLange, Emma Thul, and Emory Miller.

We’ll also be producing a Musical Theatre production of “Beauty and the Beast”, with Isabelle Davis, Levi Capesius, Caitlin Thilges, Sam Vaske, Gabe Trainer, Aidan Koob, and Sam Trainer. In Ensemble Acting Levi Capesius and Caitlin Thilges will be presenting “In the Principal’s Office”. Finally Layah DeLange, Emma Thul, and Megan Bronk will be preparing a Radio Broadcasting entry. Best wishes to all the group speech entries.

We’ve had some serious computer issues at school recently, but the student website remains up and running, with updates pretty much every day. This year seniors Joel Vaske, Gibson Behr, Grant Buscherfeld, and Brandon Berte are helping maintain the website. They’re working together with junior Ben Degen and sophomores Preston Kohlhaas, Tristan Furguson, Billy Erpelding, and Luke Bormann. You can check out all their work at bggoldenbears.org.



Christmas is nearly here, and we’ve definitely been in the holiday mood here at Garrigan. The Garrigan band held their Christmas concert this past week, and the choir will be having their concert at St. Cecelia’s next Wednesday night. In addition we’ve held special Advent candle-lighting prayer services every Monday, and the whole school participated in the Sacrament of Reconciliation this past week. We’ll have a special “Bear Facts” next weekend where we’ll let you know what all the Golden Bears have planned over Christmas vacation.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Logan Capesius. Here to tell you about him is Miranda Book.

You’ve probably heard Logan reading the news here on the “Bear Facts” throughout the year. Logan represented our school at the state golf meet last spring, and he’s hoping for another team golf trophy this year. Logan is also active in math team and quiz bowl, and his schedule is full of advanced classes—including college credit math and science. After he finishes the math competition this weekend, he’ll be heading north to cheer on his favorite team, the Vikings. We wish Logan all the best in the future.

On our Golden Bear calendar, Garrigan is hosting a math league tournament this morning. Tomorrow is the fourth Sunday of Advent, and we’ll begin the day Monday with a prayer service.

There’s JJV basketball Monday night, with the Bears hosting Garner. Then Tuesday we’ll be travelling to Buffalo Center for a basketball quad with North Iowa.

Wednesday night is the Christmas vocal concert, and Thursday we’ll have a special holiday traditions prayer service. We’ll dismiss early for Christmas vacation on Thursday, and that night the Bears play the holiday basketball classic at Algona High.

That’s this week’s “Bear Facts”. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us on Christmas Eve for a special edition telling you what’s up over the holidays here at Bishop Garrigan High School.